Dedicated NHI Security Software: The Enterprise Need

Enterprises are accelerating digital initiatives powered by APIs, services, IoT and agentic artificial intelligence (AI), expanding non-human identity (NHI) risk faster than legacy Identity Access Management (IAM) and Privileged Access Management (PAM) can govern. CIOs, CISOs and IT leaders need an identity strategy that treats NHIs as first-class identities, integrates with IAM/PAM and advances enterprise security posture management. Purpose-built NHI software provides visibility, lifecycle automation and least privilege across machine identities, reducing credential exposure and compliance gaps. This analyst perspective explains why specialized NHI solutions are required to complement IAM and unify governance across human and non-human identities.

Enterprise organizations rely on applications, services, APIs, IoT devices and AI agents that necessitate machine-to-machine authentication. These NHIs present both unprecedented opportunities and significant security challenges. Proliferation has exposed critical vulnerabilities in visibility, governance and security, as evidenced by high-profile data breaches arising from compromised service accounts or API keys. Compliance and regulatory requirements demand greater oversight and control over all identities, and businesses must reassess their existing IAM strategies. Legacy IAM systems often fall short in managing these privileged NHIs, requiring specialized NHI security solutions that integrate with traditional IAM frameworks. As enterprises navigate the adoption of AI and the associated risks tied to NHIs, understanding how to effectively manage these identities becomes critical for enhancing security posture and mitigating potential threats.

Numerous and often privileged, NHIs are harder to manage and secure with legacy IAM systems, which has resulted in a broader attack surface. An increasing number of compliance and regulatory requirements mandates fine-grained control, auditing and risk management of all identities, including machines.

In contrast to human identities that are established during the HR onboarding process, NHIs pose challenges in credential management such as automated discovery, lifecycle management, and rotation and revocation of secrets like API tokens and certificates.

Other services tailored for NHIs include seamless integration with DevOps, CI/CD pipelines and cloud-native environments where NHIs proliferate. Security teams will also require support for continuous monitoring, behavioral anomaly detection and incident response for machine identities.

Does NHI security software replace the need for IAM platforms? The consensus is that NHI security tools complement rather than replace traditional IAM systems. IAM platforms primarily focus on human identity management, access provisioning, authentication and governance for users. NHI tools layer on top or alongside IAM to address the unique scale, automation and security challenges of machine identities. Integration between IAM and NHI security platforms is essential to provide a 360-degree view of all identities and ensure identity security posture management.

ISG Research asserts that by 2027, 1 in 4 enterprises will not have embraced software for non-human identities and risk blind spots in identity security posture management. NHI security software fills an important niche by extending identity security into the machine domain with specialized capabilities while working in coordination with IAM platforms to unify identity governance across human and non-human realms.

The key functional attributes of NHI security tools that layer on top of IAM platforms include discovery, inventory and classification, lifecycle management, least privilege enforcement, behavioral monitoring and automated incident response. These tools specialize in handling the unique characteristics of NHIs such as service accounts, API keys, machine identities and AI agents, which differ from human identities in operation and scale:

• Discovery and inventory management: Automated, continuous discovery and inventory of NHIs across cloud, on-premises, software-as-a-service (SaaS) and hybrid environments. Classification by type, risk level and usage is critical to provide visibility into NHIs and reduce shadow IT risk.
• Access governance and least privilege: Enforce least privilege access dynamically with just-in-time access controls and policy-driven automation. Attribute-based access controls and cross-environment credential segregation help reduce attack surfaces and lateral movement risks.
• Lifecycle management and automation: Automated onboarding, credential issuance, automatic rotation of secrets (e.g., passwords, tokens, certificates) and decommissioning of NHIs to minimize stale or compromised credentials. Emergency revocation workflows enable quick response to breaches. Note that coordination with teams including DevOps is essential to minimize operational disruption.
• Behavioral monitoring and anomaly detection: Machine learning (ML)-based behavioral baselining and real-time anomaly detection to identify suspicious activity such as unusual access patterns or privileged escalation. Risk scoring and contextual threat analysis improve detection accuracy.
• Incident response and remediation: Automated containment (e.g., credential revocation), forensic logging, audit trails and recovery orchestration for compromised NHIs. Platforms need to be integrated with overall incident response workflows and support policy enforcement.
• Secrets and credential security: Secure vaulting and correlation of secrets used by NHIs with scanning to find exposed secrets or misconfigurations. Integration with security posture and compliance frameworks ensures continuous validation of security policies.
• Ownership and accountability: Assignment of NHI ownership to specific teams or individuals for accountability in governance and security management.
  
  

These capabilities go beyond traditional IAM by addressing the scale, automation and continuous operation characteristics of NHIs and align with Zero Trust principles to treat every NHI as potentially compromised. Leading tools provide integrations with existing IAM, secret management and security ecosystems to enable holistic identity security posture management across both human and non-human identities.

For CIOs, CISOs and IT leaders, a modern identity strategy demands dedicated controls for NHIs alongside IAM and PAM. Specialized NHI software strengthens enterprise security posture management by automating lifecycle, enforcing least privilege and securing secrets across machine identities from APIs to agentic AI. Complementing IAM, these tools close visibility gaps, streamline governance and mitigate breach risk tied to privileged service accounts. By investing in NHI capabilities today, enterprises will be positioned to scale securely, meet compliance mandates and unify identity governance across human and non-human identities.

Regards,

Jeff Orr